What becomes a villain most?
The American Film Institute and I never agree on lists. The heroes and villains list included.
See, I'm a villain kind of girl. I like my guys dark and dangerous. The bad guys in films and books always seem to have more depth. The heroes are mostly whitewashed and predictable.
My perfect villain is quiet. Mysterious. He has to be dastardly and underhanded, yet with a certain charm and sexiness about him that makes you want to take him home and ride him until morning (this does work for female villains as well). He should be sinister, but always with a method to his madness. None of this running around town hacking up hookers because he has a small penis. No, my villain fights for guts and glory. He doesn't want to conquer the world, he is much happier bringing the head of his boss's enemy back to him on a gilded stick, preferably on fire. His prize is usually money, but for him, every win against an enemy is a personal victory. He does not need scantily clad girls sent to him by his boss, because victory and the death of his opponent is enough for him. He is driven by demons of his past, several broken hearts and the memory of his beloved dog who was killed by his neighbor when he was young. And speaking of driving, his vehicle of choice is just as sleek, sexy and powerful as he is.
So who fits this bill? Who do you think my ultimate villain is? Well, they have not yet invented the character who has all these traits, but there is still one movie villain that, for me, reigns above all other dark and nasty characters.
Take a guess before you click below.
Boba Fett, the greatest villain there ever was.
Comments
To me,I think the coolest,villian was "The Predator" not Arnie but the alien.He went hunting for the sport of it.He was meaner than hell yet honorable enough to not kill unarmed victims and to fight Arnie as fair as could be under the circumstances at the end.
Posted by: Joatmoaf | June 4, 2003 08:54 PM
What if he doesn’t survive? He’s worth a lot to me.
Posted by: todd | June 4, 2003 08:55 PM
A pox! Dr. Doom is the greatest villain of all time!
Posted by: Alex Knapp | June 4, 2003 09:09 PM
my son just bought his 3rd boba fett with his savings. he loves him too. :)
Posted by: kat | June 4, 2003 09:09 PM
Boba Fett was pretty damn cool and all, but his whole "I get paid big money to do things for other people" thing doesn't quite rise to the level of "Great Villain".
Posted by: Bill McCabe | June 4, 2003 09:43 PM
You know, I really can't qualify Boba Fett as a villain. Think about it, if the rebel alliance had more $$$ on them, he'd be knocking off Darth and Palpatine.
Boba Fett is the truest form of "Neutral" that you can get.
Posted by: Brian | June 4, 2003 09:44 PM
nah. if he was such a badass, a blind han solo wouldn't have knocked him off by bumping into him.
Posted by: the mighty jimbo | June 4, 2003 09:52 PM
I actually guessed Vader. C'mon, you said driven by demons of the past (ok, so Lucas hasn't shown us the demon yet, but it's coming), broken heart, and driven. And Vader had not one, but two badass rides. If only he wasn't surrounded by incompetent morons...
Posted by: a different Bill | June 4, 2003 10:04 PM
Perhaps I should have said "bad guy" instead of villain.
If that's the case, then Vader would be next in line for me.
[plays imperial march]
Posted by: michele | June 4, 2003 10:06 PM
I'd have to go with Francis. Stealing Pee Wee's bike was pretty unforgivable.
Posted by: robyn | June 4, 2003 10:07 PM
"Hello, Fran-CESS."
Posted by: Keith | June 4, 2003 10:09 PM
Is there no love for Skeletor?
Posted by: Tyler | June 4, 2003 10:16 PM
yay Robin!
Posted by: SondraK | June 4, 2003 10:28 PM
Boba was on screen for a sum total of... what... five minutes? And all it takes is getting whacked in the rocket pack to "kill" him. (For all we know he blasted his way out of the Sarlac).
Posted by: Laurence Simon | June 4, 2003 10:29 PM
Well wasn't Boba Fett's father killed by a Jedi? Any revenge factor there?
Posted by: Steve M | June 4, 2003 10:34 PM
how about the unbelievably hot and sexy bad guy from the crow? top dollar, i think was his name, played by michael wincott. he was amazingly evil and seductive.
Posted by: michelle | June 4, 2003 10:56 PM
Wendy is a pretty formidable villain, and she even survives.
Posted by: Andy Freeman | June 4, 2003 11:26 PM
Read the Bounty Hunter Wars Trilogy. *
Boba Fett may not meet all the criteria of a villain, but he's definitely one of the Coolest Guys in the Universe!
*Takes place after Jedi...so, yes, he did blast his way out of the Sarlacc!
Posted by: AimeeC | June 4, 2003 11:47 PM
yeah, but you described batman.
Posted by: tanya | June 5, 2003 12:00 AM
hey, you think that Boba Fett ever met a stormtrooper with his hat off? i mean, wouldn't he say "hey, you look like me!"?
Posted by: mikey | June 5, 2003 02:21 AM
I'll be seeing the actor who plays Boba Fett [the older version] at Disney Friday. I'll send you a photo, if you want. :)
But if we're doing villians, I might have to lean towards the Emperor/Senator Palpatine from the Star Wars series. He betrays everyone to become Chancellor, starting the Clone Wars, which all but wipe out the Jedi. Then he turns Anakin to the dark side and later almost destroys Luke. Nasty little bugger. LOL
Posted by: Michelle | June 5, 2003 07:51 AM
my first villain crush was a character called dirk blackpool in some medieval tv show in the early 80s. but they don't have to be dark. rutger hauer in blade runner and hitcher? drool
Posted by: tanya | June 5, 2003 10:49 AM
I saw this on CNN before and something struck me then--only two people in the top ten heroes were women, and only three people in the top ten villains were men. I know it's just a silly list, and I didn't actually see the full extended list, but I just thought it was interesting that that's how the list fell out. (Particularly since I didn't find some of the top ten villains to be....uber scary.)
Posted by: Pfish | June 5, 2003 11:47 AM
I entertain this topic on my site today. Darth Vader is the No. 1 villain, hands down, because of the music that plays whenever he walks into the room. Did Lecter have any music? No. He's a puss, comparatively.
And the selection of Atticus Finch as the No. 1 hero is entirely laughable. Kids have pretended to be the daring Luke Skywalker, the cool James Bond or the rough & tough Rocky. No one -- NO ONE -- has ever imitaded a civil rights lawyer.
Posted by: Paul Katcher | June 5, 2003 04:57 PM
my first villain crush was a character called dirk blackpool in some medieval tv show in the early 80s.
I remember that show. It's this guy:
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Regehr,+Duncan
I still maintain that Boba Fett's popularity is due in very large part to the advance marketing of the Boba Fett action figure (he was available for free by mail well before The Empire Strikes Back came out, and if you sent in enough proofs of purchase early enough, you got the one with the unsafe-for-kids-and-therefore-way-cool launchable rocket).
Posted by: Crank | June 6, 2003 05:40 PM
Yes, Dirk Blackpool was also my first major villain obsession. And it was due to the silky, evil that he projected - not to mention the studded black leather outfits. Yummy! The character was played by Duncan Regehr and the show was called Wizards and Warriors. It only aired 8 times in 1983. Sad, sad, sad. But the memory lingers. ;-)
Posted by: Crownhelm | October 8, 2003 08:39 PM